# Premala Chandra > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Premala_Chandra > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Premala_Chandra.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premala_Chandra > Source revision: 1346543829 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Premala** "**Premi**" **Chandra** is an American theoretical [condensed matter physicist](/source/Condensed_matter_physics) whose research concerns the [quantum mechanical](/source/Quantum_mechanics) and [electromagnetic](/source/Electromagnetism) behavior of matter at the [nanoscale](/source/Nanoscale), especially in two-dimensional surfaces. She is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University).[1] ## Education and career Chandra graduated [summa cum laude](/source/Summa_cum_laude) from [Yale University](/source/Yale_University) in 1981.[2] Despite a love for mathematics and science, and pressure from her mother to become a physicist, she started her studies in history, but switched to physics after being persuaded by her mother that she was "just running away from what you love".[3] After graduating, she worked in industry as a research technician for [Exxon](/source/Exxon) for two years, and then continued her graduate studies at the [University of California, Santa Barbara](/source/University_of_California,_Santa_Barbara). After visiting [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University) under a UC Regents Fellowship, she completed her Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara in 1988,[2] under the supervision of [James S. Langer](/source/James_S._Langer).[4] Next, Chandra returned to Exxon as a postdoctoral researcher for two years. She became a research scientist at the [NEC Research Institute](/source/NEC_Research_Institute) in 1990, and a senior research scientist there in 2001.[2] The institute closed in late 2002, and was merged into a more applied laboratory that no longer focused on basic research.[5] Soon after, in 2003, Chandra took her present position as a professor at Rutgers University.[2] ## Recognition Chandra was elected as a [Fellow of the American Physical Society](/source/Fellow_of_the_American_Physical_Society), in the 2013 class of fellows, "for contributions to the theory of frustrated antiferromagnets and glasses, ferroelectrics and heavy fermion materials".[6] ## Personal life Chandra grew up in [New Jersey](/source/New_Jersey),[7] as the elder of two daughters of Indian-American mathematical physicist [Harish-Chandra](/source/Harish-Chandra) and Lalitha "Lily" Kale. Kale, whose mother was a Polish Jew, was born in Warsaw but grew up in [Bangalore](/source/Bangalore) after her family fled Poland in 1939 or 1940.[8][3] As a child Chandra missed two years of schooling because of [asthma](/source/Asthma), which she countered by athletics, first on a swim team and at Yale as a member of the [crew team](/source/Rowing_(sport)).[7][3] Chandra is married to [Piers Coleman](/source/Piers_Coleman), a British physicist also affiliated with Rutgers University.[3] ## References 1. ["Premala Chandra"](https://physics.rutgers.edu/people/faculty-list/faculty-profile/chandra-premala), *Faculty*, Rutgers Department of Physics and Astronomy, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. ["Curriculum vitae"](https://sites.rutgers.edu/premala-chandra/wp-content/uploads/sites/1032/2017/12/premi-4.pdf), 2025, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. ["Lalitha Kale Harish-Chandra (1934–2019)"](https://bhavana.org.in/lalitha-kale-harish-chandra-1934-2019/), *Bhāvanā: The mathematics magazine*. Vol. 3, no. 3, July 2019, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. ["Premala Chandra"](https://academictree.org/physics/peopleinfo.php?pid=625332), *Physics Tree*, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. Fortnow, Lance (November 3, 2003), ["What happened at NEC?"](https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2003/11/what-happened-at-nec.html), *Computational Complexity*, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. ["Professor Premi Chandra has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society"](https://physics.rutgers.edu/news/news-archive/2014-news/professor-premi-chandra-has-been-elected-a-fellow-of-the-american-physical-society), *2014 News*, Rutgers Department of Physics and Astronomy, January 23, 2014, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. Chandra, Premi, ["Thoughts on my physics life in progress"](https://www.phys.lsu.edu/cuwip/presentation-PChandra.pdf), Louisiana State University, retrieved 2025-05-23 1. Madhavan, Girija (February 16, 2024), ["The grand wedding of 1950 in Mysore: When a Brilliant Mathematician wed a Graceful Mysorean at a grand hotel in a stylish manner"](https://starofmysore.com/the-grand-wedding-of-1950-in-mysore/), *Star of Mysore*, retrieved 2025-05-23 ## External links - [Home page](https://sites.rutgers.edu/premala-chandra/) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Premala Chandra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premala_Chandra) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premala_Chandra?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.